The present invention relates to a method and a device for the detection and deactivation of a deactivatable security element fitted in or affixed to an article for the purpose of electronic article surveillance.
More and more articles in department stores and warehouses are being equipped with electronically deactivatable security elements. Security elements of this type are known from German Patent DE 44 36 974 A1, and European Patents EP 0 412 137 and EP 0 181 327 B1, for example. Deactivation takes place as soon as a customer rightly acquires the article by purchase. With the rate of deactivation being less than 100 percent, so-called reminders are arranged in the area of the cash desk to notify the salesperson when a security element has not been deactivated. Like the deactivators, however, these reminders are also blessed with only a certain rate of success, meaning that both contribute cumulatively to an actual rate of deactivation that fails to comply with the desired deactivation rate of 100 percent.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a device which greatly improve the rate of deactivation.
This object is accomplished with respect to the method aspect by allocating a code to each article, by reading in or entering the code at an input device, by allocating an article information to the code, which article information contains an indication as to whether the article is protected against pilferage by an electronic security element, and by having a deactivation unit switched on when the presence of a corresponding indication is established.
With respect to the device aspect, the object of the present invention is accomplished by allocating a code to each article, by providing an input device at which the code is entered or read in, by providing a processor which allocates to the code an article information saved in a storage unit and detects from the information whether the article is equipped with an electronically detectable security element, and by providing a deactivation unit which is switched on when the processor detects that the article is equipped with an electronically detectable security element.
In accordance with an advantageous further aspect of the device aspect of the present invention provision is made for the security element to be an electromagnetic strip security element, a Barkhausen security element, a thin-film security element, a resonant frequency security element or an acousto-magnetic security element. Basically the device according to the present invention is thus capable of detecting and deactivating all known types of security elements. In this connection it is necessary for the article information allocated to the code to include an indication as to the type of security element with which the article in question is equipped.
If, as proposed in an advantageous aspect of the device aspect of the present invention, several types of deactivator for deactivating the various types of security element are provided in the deactivation unit, the processor activates selectively the deactivator required in the particular case.
Considering that nowadays the article information is called up at cash desks directly via a barcode, it is advantageous for the code to be a barcode. A barcode reader is then used accordingly as an input device. Alternatively, the code can also be a price information and the input device a cash register.